Day: 2016-05-22

So many of us are frustrated with the TSA right now. Frustrated is actually and in all honesty putting it rather lightly.

Airport security has become such a burden to travelers that the airlines are now getting involved and demanding change. In fact some are calling for an end to the TSA all together. Which if anyone has ever paid attention to any government run organization, is not such a bad idea.

The numbers depending on what you read or who you listen to show that the TSA has between a 80% – 95% failure rate, that’s right, they have yet to manage the ability to detect dangerous items and/or people at security checkpoints.

The airports that have used private airport security firms however have been largely successful so much so that now, everyone is looking to them for help alleviating the most recent mess the TSA has made of air travel.

The mess with air travel right now could have been prevented, it’s not new that travel picks up during the holidays and in the spring/summer months hell, it’s been that way for years. The agency, including its leadership have continued to do a really piss poor job of actually managing and planning. Things like a blizzard you can’t really prevent and travel tuns into a nightmare after, but this mess recently is a complete joke and speaks very loudly about the agencies lack of effectiveness.

This is nothing new however and sadly when it comes to government agencies this is pretty normal. To hire or get funding to pay workers to work overtime is like attempting to piss up a rope. So much red tape gets in the way that by the time things are approved, it’s too late.

The TSA however, has behaved badly since the federalization of security. So many agents have been accused of fondling passengers, stealing, vying over screening the more attractive passengers, just to name a few things. The end result is a distrust of the TSA altogether and that should have been swiftly taken care of at the onset. The problem here is that the TSA is the oversight for security and it is also responsible for carrying out security.

To date, the TSA has never stopped one terrorist from boarding a plane. The agency runs rampant and catches no one. We don’t want perfect security, we don’t need it, and we do not expect it. What we do expect however, is minimal hassle and fair security wait times. Upwards of three hours to get through airport security is completely unacceptable.

By having the same agency responsible for setting screening standards and for carrying out that screening, it has created conflict and allowed for poor performance and zero accountability.

Why all this matters now other than everyone being upset over it? The TSA has managed to create a potentially deadly turn of events with long security lines and outrageous wait times. A large group of people in one central area that did not have to get through any security to get to that point, that in turn happens to be a prime target for anyone looking to cause the maximum amount of harm.

The reality is, it is only a matter of time before something happens as a result…

The TSA said they need more money so that they can work agents overtime, however after Congress appropriated it, the TSA came back and said, it’s not enough. The TSA simply is not doing the job which it’s employed to do and while it screens passengers, it still has not done a stellar job of protecting anyone.

The TSA has simply managed to continue to give itself a black eye and create public mistrust of the agency. And that in turn has bummed out the agents that work for the agency. They should look to the leadership they have rather than blaming the public for the issue. By failing over and over again to make things better, weed out the bad apples and continue as if nothing has happened, all while wait times are at an all time high since 9/11, the agency itself failed in many ways to be accountable for anything other than the bad headlines it has received.

It is crucial to take a hard look at privatizing airport security. By splitting up oversight from the actual security, we’ll see safer airports, shorter wait times and some accountability. Anytime you have an oversight group also responsible for carrying out the job, you have a multitude of issues.

It’s time to put an end to that, it’s time to look at privatizing airport security. Cristal M Clark